Installing Ubuntu (arm64) on a USB stick

Support and Help
1

Ubuntu Version:
25.10

Problem Description:
Related to similar topic on not yet supported Snapdragon / arm64.

In order to mitigate the security risk of a “work-in-progress” OS I had this idea to install on an external drive / USB drive (that I can make physically read-only). Naive?

A quick Gemini search shows that it’s possible.

My options seem there, but are greyed out - see below what I’ve tried.

Relevant System Information:
Asus Vivobook X1407Q laptop
Snapdragon X1-26-100 processor

What I’ve Tried:
I followed @glathe advice as reported here only this time Install rather than Try Ubuntu.

Manual partitioning shows sda, sdb, sdc (empty?) and nvme0n1 (the HDD).

sda is the installation media where I have a plucky-desktop-arm64 ISO

sdb is a USB drive where I created two Ext4 partitions

sdb1 (small) for /boot

sdb2 (the rest) for / (root)

I also intended to resize the Windows 11 partition (HDD) and create a swap and */tmp (*perhaps a /home )

Within this Manual Partitioning phase there is a box Device for boot loader installation

Options: all of the above sda, sdb, sdc, nvme0n1

But only sda and nvme0n1 are available.

My choice, sdb is greyed out.

Next button is not available, greyed out.

2

Assuming the Snapdragon installer has the same procedure as the amd64.iso, then:-

  • Did you set the boot and esp flags on sdb1?
  • Tick the format box for each partition?

Alternatively, as you intend to use the whole disk, perhaps select Erase disk and install Ubuntu

I’ve just noticed that you made both partitions ext4.
The ESP should be FAT32

2 Likes
3

That was good advice (FAT32), thanks, I did get past that hurdle.

I managed to start booting on that USB drive, but it crashes at some point, no hint why, or perhaps is displayed for a fraction of a second and not really visible, then it starts booting Windows.

4

Sleeping on it I realised that it’s probably not that simple.

I might be able to configure it so that /tmp is a partition on nvme drive (write access) but it will probably need more, /etc stuff?

PS. Not sure how support topics work on Discourse, clean boot would probably count as a new topic? Should I mark the Solution (as the original issue as reported was solved), I suppose that would close this topic.

5

Yes, I think so, it keeps topics tidy.

I don’t have a Snapdragon PC, I was only try to help with the installer question.
There is a lot of Snapdragon info within discourse.ubuntu.com

For example

6

Minor… if it makes any difference, this was a Ubuntu 25.04 not 25.10 as originally raised ( I don’t think I can edit my initial description)

7

It kinda does… 25.04 is out of support.

1 Like
8

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